


A Season Under the Kandrona

by Senri



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 03:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13309449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senri/pseuds/Senri
Summary: Alloran prepares, Seerow hopes, Garoff watches, and Aldrea, a child, is too young to fully grasp the implications of the history being made - but she is not too young to miss the tensions, or forget the story.





	A Season Under the Kandrona

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Purrs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purrs/gifts).



> Dear purronronner, I am SO SORRY for how late this is. So sorry. So so sorry. Work and holiday and class things ate me alive. 
> 
> I hope this story hits some notes you like. I think Seerow, Alloran, Aldrea, and tbh the entire Yeerk species must have had some fascinating dynamics at play in the days before war broke out. Really this fic probably deserves to be a 500k political epic, but I did not have the time. Until the day someone writes that epic I hope this will whet appetites.

Green skies, heavy humidity, acid rain; all of them were wrong, but what was most unnatural was living in the enclosed shelters. The soldiers never quite got used to it: they spoke quite freely around their Prince’s daughter, so I can tell you this with confidence. I would say this was foolishness, to proclaim opinions around a Prince’s child, even if she were but a girl, but such were my people, such were the soldiers. If we were all wise, the universe would have fewer troubles.

Regardless of that. I was but a slip of the thing, and the halls seemed very long to me; quarters and common areas, a communication bay, a space to do double duty as laboratory and medical bay. There were no luxuries, besides the large windows. We were a provisional outpost.

This instance took place early on: I ran with my father over the Yeerkish grass. It was acceptable for grazing, but not good; we ate a little, and then closed our hooves to it. In the evenings we fed on grass mash, nutrients and slurry. It is easy for an Andalite to under-eat.

«Are you well, Aldrea?» My father was worried for me. Deep in his studies, when he remembered his family he was worried for all of us.

«I’m homesick, father,» I admitted. «I miss _Halen-fala._ I don’t have any friends and the soldiers don’t have time for me.»

In that day, my father seemed like an unknowable being rather than a fallible Andalite. He had become a Prince and could only continue to do great things. At this moment he reached out one hand and rested his palm on my head, between my stalk eyes.

«Dear one, we are here to change the universe in some small way. I know it’s hard for you, but it won’t last forever. Continue with your studies, take care of your brother, and respect your mother. All will be well in the end.»

This was not enough for me. «I’m lonely. I wish I could be with you all the time.»

«I suppose you could accompany me to a meeting if you wished. You must behave yourself very well if you do.»

I didn’t like the Yeerks, but I liked my father, which was enough for me to decide. «I’ll be very good if I can come to your meeting.»

«It will be boring. I’ll teach them some things, but it will all be things you have learned already. If you do come you mustn’t fidget or interrupt. Try to make a Yeerkish friend of your own.»

The idea did not appeal. I shuffled my hooves; they were coated with dust and didn’t shine. «I’ll try.»

«Effort is the first step to accomplishment,» my father said approvingly, then became playful. «I suppose attending one class won’t give you too many chances to cause a diplomatic incident.»

I leaped then, as my father had described before, _i like a young ellit _. In these days it took as little as that for joy to infuse my bones. «I won’t cause any incidents at all!» My poor, goodhearted fool of a father, sweet Seerow who was too kind, he laughed.__

__\--_ _

__The meeting was as boring as he had promised. «You’re too young for it yet, Aldrea,» my father said with a laugh. What did come of it was that I came to Alloran’s notice in a small way, and the Yeerks noticed me as well._ _

__I was not allowed to wander the territories around our outpost without an adult accompanying me. I was young, but still offended by this; even as a child I was quicker than the Gedds, and proclaimed to my father that I could kill one if it became necessary (he gave me one spank with the flat of his tail blade and told me never to speak of that again, for fear of causing a diplomatic incident). Either my mother, carrying a shredder for added security, or a warrior, chafing at the indignity, would take me out to graze and explore some small part of the new world._ _

__Alloran became the only soldier ever to volunteer for the job, and he turned up that cycle with a shredder at his side, tail held proud and high, looking my father in the face with all four eyes - even as a child I could recognize the gesture as nearly aggressive in its directness._ _

__«I am pleased if you wish to accompany Aldrea,» my father said after some moments collecting himself. «I have all confidence that you’ll care for my daughter as I would.»_ _

__«Nothing will interfere with her under my charge,» Alloran replied. It was more tactful than what he would say to his fellow soldiers, which from listening I knew was more like _if the father cared for his children, he wouldn’t be inflicting this benighted planet on them in the first place.__ _

__«Are you glad to go with Alloran?» my father asked me, in private thought-speech._ _

__«I want to go,» is what I said. I was enticed by him even at that early age, enticed by all the warriors with their swagger and braggery._ _

__My father let out only a very small sigh. «Eat well,» he said to both of us. So it was that Alloran and I cantered away together over one of the small hills northward of our base._ _

__We went silently for a while. I could see him shortening his stride to match my pace and stretched my own legs. Even then I wished to match the warriors pace for pace, no matter the strange grass we sampled. The sky was bilious green that day, and strange stalks waved from the ground. I knew they weren’t plants; my mother the xenobiologist had told me they were organisms that buried their bodies and left only their nutrient-absorbing organs free to feel the breeze. They could wind around any passing creature and hold them until the acid rains streaked down and melted the prey to slurry fit for consumption. Alloran and I avoided them._ _

__«Yeerk must be a dull place for a child,» Alloran said. In retrospect I see he must have felt awkward, but determined to accomplish whatever private mission he had set himself. «Only one playmate, and that one your brother. At your age my sisters would have driven me out of the scoop rather than play with me.»_ _

__I recall casting about for something to say. Already, he’d put me in a tight spot; either I had to express disloyalty to my father, or lie and say I was completely content with my circumstances on Yeerk. My pause was much too long to go unnoticed but Alloran simply continued walking._ _

__«My father is doing important work,» I said at last. He would never have put it in this way but I have always been more Andalite in my bearing than he: «»It’s important that we help beings lesser than ourselves.»_ _

__Alloran’s tail flicked slightly, body language I understand in retrospect, but wasn’t to know then. «Your father would not like to hear you say that. The Yeerks are our brothers, after all.» In the company of his warriors he would have said _these slugs,_ I did know that much._ _

__«My father understands many things. The Yeerks could help the galaxy someday.» I myself did not think it likely, but I had a daughter’s loyalty. Now I know my thought-speech hummed with overtones of words learned by rote, lacking true conviction._ _

__«Perhaps,» Alloran said in a non-committal fashion. He had taken me aside to probe my father’s beliefs through me, to see if we all held so much hope out for the new species we had discovered._ _

__On the hill lower to us, a Gedd stood, propped up on a short-cut stave. Lower still the waters of a pool rolled under the wild sky, moved by a slight breeze. The Gedd did not raise a hand in greeting and we did nothing to acknowledge the Gedd._ _

__«Have we come far enough, daughter of my prince?» Alloran said._ _

__I myself had to hesitate. Really, I felt I could have gone further; we could have walked on and on with the wet breeze ruffling our fur, with the lightning striping the sky without ever striking. This was the wish and then there was the reality: the grass that failed to appetize, the rains that would come and burn us to nothing if we were so unwary._ _

__«I suppose I have,» I admitted, «for now.»_ _

__«Then let us return to our brothers,» Alloran said. I knew he did not refer to the Yeerks._ _

__\--_ _

__It was two days later when my father walked with me again. We had hardly stepped outside the compound when he leaned his tail over and draped it over my back, bearing most of the weight himself but letting me feel a touch of it. Between Andalites this is a protective gesture, affectionate, similar to two Hork-Bajir pressing head-blades together._ _

__«Are you happier, my little _ellit?_ » he asked. The air was wet and smelled sour. I had tagged along after Alloran the past two days when I could, but he had little time for me._ _

__Nevertheless. «I don’t like the Yeerks,» I admitted. «Maybe Alloran doesn’t either. The warriors don’t like them.»_ _

__My father dropped his tail from my back and strode for some moments in silence. I could feel his sadness thickening the air between us like fog. «They don’t understand,» he said, «at least not yet. And as of yet, it’s beyond you as well...»_ _

__«I’m sorry,» I said, feeling awkward and slightly sick. I was a sensitive child and hated to disappoint my father._ _

__He heard and understood in an instant, and put his tail over my back again. «We grow stronger and more knowledgeable when we see the galaxy in a different way. We improve ourselves with kindness when we share knowledge and uplift other species.»_ _

__«What kind of knowledge can the Yeerks give to us?» I wanted to prance disdainfully, but under the weight of his tail I refrained._ _

__«Things we couldn’t dream of, as of where we stand today,» my father said immediately. « _Vecols_ with mental afflictions could find treatment and relief through treatment by trained Yeerks, for instance. Xenobiologists could work with Yeerks when they studied new creatures, evaluating their level of sentience and the acuity of their senses. Why, think of a trained soldier working with a Yeerk! The Yeerk could serve as a partner for the warrior, standing watch when necessary, observing the battlefield in a firefight, in fact educated enough a Yeerk warrior could open entire new fields of expertise to their partnered Andalite.»_ _

__The thought gave me some kind of chill. The idea of letting one of those slugs into my brain, as a partner and friend - never._ _

__«Alloran wouldn’t like that,» I said truthfully. «The warriors don’t like the Yeerks. They would never let that happen.»_ _

__Again I felt that sadness wafting from my father. Somehow in these moments Yeerk suited him. The greatness of the sky, the energy striping and flickering was also inside his skin, driving him onward chasing visions no one else could understand. «Not for a long while, my little _ellit_ ,» he said. «We are a flawed people. Not many Andalites would dwell on the thought, but we have as much much to learn about the mysteries of the universe as anyone else.»_ _

__It was then that we saw the figure of the Gedd, making its slouching way towards us through the brush. I had paid only a little more attention to Gedds since I went to my father’s presentation. Was it one of the Gedds that had attended? I could have answered that question as well as I could have said whether or not Alloran and I saw the same Gedd on our walk._ _

__«Come, Aldrea,» my father said, and broke into a trot at once. He was as excited to meet this Yeerk and host as he ever was. The Gedd stopped once he saw my father move; we were swifter, but also even then I felt a prickle of dislike that this Yeerk (I had no doubt this was a Yeerk initiating, not a Gedd alone) had made us come, rather than approaching us._ _

__When we had come, at least, the Gedd bowed its head. It spoke as usual in the halting, growling, clumsy way they had. “Prince-rrr-Seerow. We are always glad to see you. We recall your daughter, you brought her to the teaching.”_ _

__«My daughter Aldrea,» father said, and dropped his tail over me to usher me closer. I moved with stiff legs; at least he did not bring me close enough to touch the Gedd. «It is my pleasure to present her to you, Garoff.»_ _

__The Gedd tipped his staff, and my father moved to walk alongside. He still urged me with his tail and along I came, watching Garoff. I admit I was curious. Garoff was one of my father’s better Yeerkish friends. I watched him shyly, sidelong, with stalk eyes only._ _

__“We-rr-hope that Aldrea will be as sound a friend to the Yeerks as you have been, Prince,” Garoff said. “What do you-rrr-think of Yeerk, child?” It was a moment before I realized he was addressing me, and another moment before I realized my father would not speak for me._ _

__In the end I found very little to say to this cunning creature. «The skies are beautiful,» I said. «The acid rain is frightening. The trees are not like those of home.»_ _

__“The Andalite speaking trees. Prr-rrince Seerow has spoken of these wonders.” We walked slowly and Garoff kept up in a shambling lope. “My people speak of these things and see pictures. There are those who thirst to see these marvels in reality.”_ _

__My father’s tail drew me closer. «My brother,» he said sadly, «You know I would like nothing better than to show you the true home of my people -- to show you all the universe had to offer. I am working, but all my people aren’t so agreeable.»_ _

__“There is thirst in the pools,” Garoff said. “For-rr-the first time my people dream of more than the kandrona and the sludge, the explorers, the sages and the vanarx. Brr-ring us perhaps live samples of your Andalite trees. Show us your Andalite arts.”_ _

__I wonder now if Garoff knew then what was to come, what he and his fellows were to enact upon my kind father and his great dreams of peace and brotherhood, in that moment._ _

__«The galaxy changes slowly, my friend,» father replied, and for the first time in my memory I detected some awkwardness from him. «The trees, I can bring you. Our arts are easily within my grasp. But the stars? Perhaps not yet.»_ _

__“We understand,” Garoff said. “You are one Andalite amongst many. It is the same with us. One Yeerk cannot divert the pool’s flow with their actions.”_ _

__«Be patient, I implore you,» my father said. «I am by your side in this.»_ _

__We walked together for a little more, mostly in silence, before Garoff bid us goodbye and disappeared into the brush. My father, I think, truly had faith in his friend; I myself was left wondering._ _

__\--_ _

__Alloran had not forgotten me. One last time we ran outward together; he was checking in, on my father’s progression with the Yeerks, I think, the progression of his perception and his feelings. That is what it was, I see it now._ _

__«The wish is sound,» Alloran admitted, with temper. He was tense and I could sense it; I tensed in turn, stretching my legs to keep up. I, wishing to defend my father’s dreams, had parroted Seerow’s wishes for the Yeerks to him. «The wish might be sound. But we cannot call these slugs our brothers. They may love Seerow, if you can say they have the capacity for it, but how could they love the rest of us?»_ _

__«Why not?» I hurried after him. My nostrils flared, sucking at the tepid, humid air. We were moving too fast for my child’s legs._ _

__«Because we fail to love them, and how could we love them? Love for slugs - even if I can see the use I can’t summon it. Such love could be found in bleeding hearts and visionaries. The body of the people will want nothing to do with them--»_ _

__We were coming to a pool edge, and Alloran veered away from it before stopping to my great relief. I took advantage of that moment to fetch up behind his left flank and catch my breath. I could smell the Yeerk pool: a salty, marshy, muddy smell, almost the smell of a wet forest, almost familiar. The Yeerk pool was naturally acidic my mother had told me, an acidity maintained by the rains that came each night. The Yeerks would sink down and rest in the muck when the surface became inhospitable, protected by the acidity of their environment by their slime coating. Then such sun as there was would burn off the worst of the acids and the Yeerks would rise again to go about their business._ _

__Alloran stared out across the small pool - this one might not even have been a proper home for Yeerks, I didn’t know? My mother or father could have said. Alloran probably didn’t know._ _

__«This planet is benighted,» he said. «These creatures, unfortunate. But what can we do for them? They are born as they are. What Andalite would resign themselves to take a slug into their own brain?»_ _

__«They could help vecols,» I repeated, as if it would assuage him, as if it would help. «They could research aliens with us.»_ _

__«In what bodies? The Gedds are clumsy and slow.» Alloran at last looked away from the pool. «Are we to design and distort creatures from our own home to suit them? Are we to offer them ourselves?»_ _

__Alloran was conservative, of an old and arrogant stripe, which I can tell you now since meeting him as come into his own as a warrior, and me having come into my own as an observer. But for that blindness, he managed to see something about my people, and about the Yeerks, that Seerow didn’t._ _

__It was true that the Yeerks would wait long before we accepted them, if that day were ever to come. And already there was that impatience passed back and forth amongst the pool’s malcontents. A thirst for knowledge, experience, and strong bodies willing to share their very selves._ _

__«They will want us,» Alloran said. I don’t know if he meant to say it to me. «Nothing else will do but us. And I cannot believe in a future in which our soldiers embrace them.»_ _

__I came closer to him, enough to stand at his midsection and lean my small body against his, as if for a moment I were his child. He stirred, remembering me perhaps; his stalk eyes twisted in my direction._ _

__«My father will know what to do.» I said it because I didn’t know anything else to say. «He is a Prince and the Yeerks are his friends. He will make them understand - they can’t do anything. They’re just slugs. What could happen?»_ _

__Alloran laughed, in a way that did not express joy, and pulled away from me - but slowly, enough that I didn’t overbalance. «Whatever happens - whatever could happen. That is what I and my warriors are here to stop.»_ _

__«My father will make sure nothing happens.»_ _

__«Perhaps he will, little Aldrea,» Alloran said, «And all fears will have been for naught. That would be fortunate.»_ _

__«Let’s go back to the encampment,» I said. «I should finish my lessons.»_ _

__Without comment, Alloran turned and led the way. It was a long enough walk that my muscles would feel hard-used and for some minutes we went along together in silence, except for the breeze ruffling the underbrush and the distant cries of creatures my mother could have identified._ _

__We did not speak. It came as a surprise to both of us when the Gedd rose out of the underbrush like a ghost materialized. Alloran leapt backwards and was halfway to pulling his shredder on the creature, my cry echoing in the minds of all surrounding, before both of us realized at once that there was no real threat and Alloran slammed his shredder back into its sheath._ _

__«Warn us before you come out of nowhere!» Alloran roared at once. «Fool, I might have shot you!»_ _

__The Gedd had stood very still through these proceedings. This time I thought I recognized the alien, through the mottled patterns on its furless skin perhaps. Mostly Gedds looked the same to me. «Garoff?» I said._ _

__“The younger-rr-recognizes me after all,” Garoff said, with a tone that in retrospect I recognize as amused and ironic. “Greetings, Aldrea and minder.” His tone was different than it was when he spoke with my father, and Alloran bristled at not being recognized by name._ _

__«Greetings,» I said uncertainly. «My father… he’s busy at the base. Warrior Alloran and I are just grazing.»_ _

__“Childrr-en of all species must explore. I will accompany you to your home if you permit.”_ _

__«We should be under shelter before the rains begin,» Alloran said. «Gedds are slow. Will you be quick enough to see us back safely?»_ _

__“Time remains before you are in danger of any dousing. Should I prove too clumsy for you, I won’t take it personally if you leave me behind.”_ _

__We set off, a party of three, slower than before. Alloran’s presence was different - the Yeerk had hardly said anything, but his tail was up. He was somehow ready to aggress and it made me afraid on one level, and a little excited in some other, less expressed part of me that at the time I felt ashamed of._ _

__It was left to me to make conversation with the Yeerk. «The sky is especially full of lightning today,» I said, the first thing that came into my head. «Did you know I have a guide tree at home?»_ _

__“Tell me about your-rr-guide tree,” Garoff said, and at the same time as I flicked my tail at his authoritative tone, added, “if you please.”_ _

__«The trees of Andalite are not like the ones here,» I said. He must have known it all already; there was little I could say that he had not already seen, in my father’s presentations. «They are very tall, and colored blue, purple, red and pink. Sometimes all on the same tree. My tree is named _Halen-fala._ When I am home I visit her every morning and tell her about the day before. I can feel my thoughts sinking into her, but she never speaks back to me. I hope someday she will. Sometimes trees speak, but it takes them a very long time. It’s good for Andalites to speak to guide trees because it brings peace to the mind.»_ _

__I sounded, and I knew it even then, like a child giving a school report. If only I could see _Halen-fala_ again, if only I had known then how much I needed that silence and patience. Even the great trees of Hork-Bajir cannot compare to our Andalite trees._ _

__But Garoff listened with great patience and attention. He hardly had any to spare for Alloran, who carried on stiff and distant beside us, for reasons even I with my dislike of Yeerks struggled to understand. I didn’t like Garoff, but he hadn’t really done anything to make me freeze from him so._ _

__“The Kandrona nourishes Yeerks,” he said when I finished my speech. “From times long past we have chanted to the Kandrona. Can you suppose what we asked for?”_ _

__«No,» I admitted. I had never imagined that Yeerks would do any such thing._ _

__“We have asked for-rr-only moderate rains, for-rr-rare spawns of Vanarx, for-rr-the fruitfulness of the Gedd, and for-rr-rare lightning strikes. Our-rr-worlds are not large. We needed little more than that.”_ _

__Garoff tilted his head. His alien face with the barbaric open slash of mouth was inscrutable to me. He was farther away than Halen-fala, there next to me. How could you trust any alien with a mouth that could eat flesh? That could eat _you?__ _

__The thought made the hair on my spine prickle. I willed myself strong and courageous as my father would want, and the thoughts gone._ _

__“What a wonder-rr-ful picture you make of your tree,” Garoff said. “All of us await with eagerness the saplings-rr-Seerow promised us.”_ _

__«They will come soon enough,» Alloran announced. «Though perhaps they won’t thrive. Yeerk is a harsh environment for any interloper, be it living creature or living plant.»_ _

__“Seerow has promised-rr-us they will come outfitted to live,” Garoff said. “Farimel promises a-rr-greenhouse.”_ _

__Farimel was my mother, certainly with the expertise to coax Andalite trees to grow even here._ _

__Alloran twitched his tail. «At cultivation, Prince Seerow and Farimel are unmatched,» he said at last, with coolness._ _

__“We-rr-chant to the Kandrona of their brightness,” Garoff said. It did not quite manage to mean anything to me. I’m not sure it did to Alloran either._ _

__By then we were close to shelter. Garoff stopped before we reached the perimeter guard. He must not have wished to be called a mere slug to his face by the warriors on duty, and I found that a relief._ _

__“Aldrea, daughter-rr-of Seerow,” he said to me with a nod. “Warrior.” A nod to Alloran. “I will depart from-rr-you here. We are-rr-grateful for all Andalite brethren who bring new things to our world.”_ _

__«Travel well,» Alloran said, nothing more than a formality. He broke into a trot at once, I at his heels, and the Yeerk gone in a matter of minutes, as quickly as he’d arrived. We trotted along in silence, which I broke._ _

__«He is my father’s friend. He is one of the Council. Prince Seerow knows him.»_ _

__«And he knows you,» Alloran said, in a remote, calm way. His contempt was not for me, but for the Yeerk, and the edge of it for my father, in a way I could not at that early age quite identify or articulate. «He knows all of us and our world, but only through pictures and tales. I wonder how much he would like to see it for himself?»_ _

__He had said there was thirst in the pools. A hunger that could not be nourished by the Kandrona. I found my fur rising on my spine again and willed it flat._ _

__«My father will speak to him,» I said. «My father will make sure he understands.»_ _

__Alloran said nothing, saved from speaking to me by the perimeter guard sighting us, and calling out._ _


End file.
